An architecture student stands in the middle of the crowded lobby of the Warehouse in downtown Syracuse and shouts over the music, ‘Everyone! In a few minutes WhAT will be performing a preview in the next room!’

Another student from the crowd shouts back, ‘Is that a question?’

Everyone laughs. While a few file into the auditorium to their right, which is only set off from the lobby by a white screen, most stay where they are.

In the adjacent auditorium, a girl dressed entirely in black glances about the auditorium, no doubt noticing the scant audience.

Danton Spina, a sophomore architecture student who always seems this busy, runs to the back of the auditorium again, and makes an announcement into a microphone, saying the performance will begin a few minutes. He heads back to the stage and starts to help set up a scene. Spina sends the girl in black to the back to make the same announcement again.

But the auditorium doesn’t grow any fuller.

When they can’t wait any longer, Spina starts the performance. First he sings a song, then the girl in black performs a scene with sophomore Alex Coulombe. Then Coulombe sings a song with fellow sophomore Ian Nicholson.

These three, Spina, Coulombe and Nicholson, are architecture majors who started their own acting troupe at the end of last year, catering specifically to the busy schedules of architecture students. They call themselves Warehouse Architecture Theater, or WhAT for short.

Randall Korman, assistant dean of the school of architecture, described the architecture program as ‘rigorous and intensive with not a lot of discretionary time to do other things.’ He was surprised that architecture students would take the initiative to create a program like WhAT on their own time.

‘I think it shows the tremendous amount of professionalism and talent within our student body,’ he said. ‘These kids put such great effort and organization into this.’

WhAT’s preview at the Warehouse Social last Friday was seen by no more than 30 people. The premiere last semester had three shows, all performed to small audiences.

Spina regards this as the group’s biggest hurdle. WhAT puts on good shows, he said, but there’s no one there to see them.

While WhAT’s first performance didn’t draw the crowd he envisioned, Spina sees it as a matter of pride that a performance occurred at all. WhAT is his baby, his brainchild. It all began with a little jealousy.

Coulombe and Spina were roommates their freshman year, and during their second semester Coulombe was cast in the First Year Players’ production of ‘Anything Goes.’ Both Coulombe and Spina acted in high school, and Spina began to feel jealous that Coulombe got the chance to be in a show again.

‘I would come home from rehearsal and Danton would say, ‘How was it? Oh I miss that,” Coulombe said. ‘He would say that it really sucked that because we’re architecture students we can’t do anything else. Then he got inspired; what if we started a program where we could?’

One of the first things Danton and Coulombe did was talk to Korman to see if the idea was feasible. The professor said he originally questioned where the students would find time, but he was on board from the start.

‘I think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread,’ he said. ‘The professor in me wants my students in the studio or the classroom all the time and to dedicate their lives to architecture. But the human in me understands the need to have a life outside of architecture.’

Coulombe and Spina spent the last few weeks of their freshman year sending out e-mails and arranging meetings with the administration of the SOA and representatives of the Office of Student Life. Coulombe took the summer between freshman and sophomore years to talk to contacts at the Redhouse.

At the start of this academic year, Spina said he jumped on making WhAT an official student organization. He found an adviser, pushed the paperwork through the Student Association that got WhAT approved and enlisted the help of Nicholson, who picked out a show for December.

Although their budget proposal for the following semester was granted, WhAT’s special programs budget, which allows the group to receive money from SA within the semester, was not approved, said Mike Rizzolo, head of SA’s finance board.

Spina and Coulombe were given $500 by the SOA, and their performances in December earned WhAT $350. The rest of their costs that first semester were paid for out of their own pockets.

‘It wasn’t a fantastic amount,’ Spina said. ‘We were just lucky the Redhouse was flexible.’

Spina said the best thing about WhAT is it offers students who have never acted before a chance to do so in a relaxed and friendly setting. It also offers architecture students from different years a chance to interact with each other, something Spina said doesn’t happen much in the SOA.

Due to positive feedback from faculty and other students, Spina and his crew have recently decided to allow non-architecture majors to be members of WhAT.

‘We realized a lot of people miss theater, so we opened it up,’ Coulombe said. ‘But we’re keeping it on the architecture schedule.’

Nicholson hopes to someday be able to triple bill with other tried and true student performance organizations like Zamboni Revolution and Penguins Without Pants.

‘It’s an incredible breath of fresh air to go out and do something other than work,’ Coulombe said. ‘I found I didn’t mind spending all night in studio if I had just had a really good rehearsal.’

Brandon Stevens, a freshman architecture major, is cast in WhAT’s upcoming performances of ‘Picasso at the Lapin Agile’ by Steve Martin and ‘A Public Affair,’ an original play by Coulombe.

‘I’m escaping from spending all my time in studio coming up with ideas and working on projects,’ Stevens said. ‘It’s a chance for freedom.’

Spina said he is sometimes so busy with his class load, WhAT and other activities, he occasionally forgoes meals and sleep. And although WhAT is a time commitment that is difficult for architecture students to handle, he is quick to point out that no one has dropped out of the organization yet, and he has heard nothing but compliments from those involved.

‘It’s a needed break,’ Spina said. ‘It’s different from the whole architecture-consuming-your-life thing.’

If you goWhat: WhAT (Warehouse Architectural Theater)Where: The Redhouse, 201 S. West StreetWhen: March 22, 23, 24How Much: $4 for students, $8 for general public

Published on March 18, 2007 at 12:00 pm